Salma Hegab
Bassem El Hady Interview
Name: Salma Hegab
The interviewee: Bassem El Hady
The date: 08/03/2011
The place: TEDxCairo office, Ali Ibn Radwan st, beside Nobel Center, Heliopolis.
Salma: Hi this is Salma Hegab. I’m making an interview with Bassem El Hady at
Heliopolis, and he’s going to introduce himself.
Bassem: Well, my name is Bassem El Hady. I’m 23 years old (aaaa) I’m one of the
Co-founders of TEDxCairo, Head of Marketing & Communications. I live in
Heliopolis & my father is a scientist he’s actually a professor, and my mother is a
teacher, and I love playing Ping pong (short laugh).
Salma: (Short laugh). Now, I’m making this interview with you about TEDxCairo
basically, but I want first a brief info about TED & how did you know about it.
Bassem: (Slight pause) okay, it’s a long story actually, but umm TED for me I’m
passionate about TED like 3 years ago, (aaa) I’m used to watching TED every day
before I sleep, (aaa) I’m in love with their talks, because TED is simply about an idea.
Its... its slogans an Idea Worth Spreading, (aaa) and they have this unique format for
the talks this talk has to be like 15 minutes and has to present something unique and
creative and a different idea. That’s why… and I love creative ideas, and I love
watching ideas and I’m in love with spreading these ideas all over Egypt. That’s why
when I first saw TED, I liked the concept of TED and I thought with my Co-founders
that it would be great if we can make it here in Egypt since it (long aaa) we believe
Egypt has a lot of innovators and creative thinkers and we thought that we can create
this platform of all these bright ideas to spread it around Egypt.
Salma: So TED is basically about videos... inspiring videos and (aaa) from what
(ya3ni) I saw about it it’s videos under the categories of technology, entertainment,
and design.
Bassem: Yes
Salma: That’s why y.. you decided to make TED… xCairo (Bassem: Exactly yeah.)
Right?
Bassem: Yes.
Salma: Yeah and with your other four co-founders. (Bassem: Yup) So how did you
prepare first for the first TEDxCairo event? (Bassem: okay...)... that was last year.
Bassem: Yess. Okay it was in May 2010. So (aaa) during my (aaa) college year.. (aa)
college, I used to .. with my friends to prepare for some conferences in (a) our
university. And we have thissss small experience to prepare a conference and how to
organize and manage it from the… very beginning. But, for TED it was totally
Salma Hegab
Bassem El Hady Interview
different, because it is really a big conference and in the states it’s a big brand and you
have to follow up the guideline of TED team because it has to come up... to come
finally with this unique format and this different ideas. So our biggest challenge for us
here in Egypt is to find those people who have creative ideas because here it’s hard to
find someone who has unique and different idea who can present it in 15 minutes. So
our biggest challenge was to find those people and our second one is to transfer the
TED culture to Egypt. So… Because, here in Egypt it’s very hard to convince people
to come and hear a talk for 15 minutes and then you promise him that you’ll get
inspired and then you’ll take this content and (we have) you can have a discussion. So
(aaa) this was our second challenge and so we started to like have a brainstorming of a
list of speakers so that we can invite to the event. We have started with like 60
speaker and then we start to choose a final like 17 speakers who have attended the
event and we have divided ourselves into like 4 departments… people who are
working for marketing and fundraising, arts and finally the talks and the theme of the
event. And we were 4, and then we had a team of like (a) for the first event... for like
15 people who helped us to make it happen and then it come up.. finally with…
Salma: And what was the results for the event? Did you expect it to be that
successful?
Bassem: Actually at the beginning we thought it won’t be like what we imagined. But
after the event it was really amazing. People were inspired. The feedback of all the
audience… they loved the event they loved the organization they loved the whole
event they loved the speakers. But frankly speaking not all the speakers (y3ni) the
first one there are some with and some were against… So I can’t say that it was
hundred percent amazing but for the feedback of those it was really great and for…
and what’s (what’s) more interesting that for when the states… when TED California
heard about the first event… they really liked it and they liked the idea and the theme
“let’s inspire”.
Salma: When was the first event?
Bassem: It was on May, 2010. Actually at the 7th of May.
Salma: Aha, and then we heard like few days ago that you guys made a special TED
event. Can you give us more details and why was it confidential?
Bassem: (short laugh) Okay… So you know it was confidential. So, Okay… (aaa) this
event it was really exceptional (aaa) What happened after the 25th of Jan. after Egypt’s
revolution (aa) people started to look into Egypt and it becomes a hot spot for all the
world. So, we had a call from Chris Anderson, the founder of TED, and he told us that
the main event at TED California it is happening within a few days. And he is willing
to get Wael Ghonim to talk about how the revolution happened and the contribution
of social media to this revolution so he told us why don’t we a … like exceptional
event which is a confidential and it is mainly a surprise for the TED audience in
California. So the main theme of this event is to send a message to the States with all
Salma Hegab
Bassem El Hady Interview
the details of the revolution before and after the revolution. And how it happened and
how the social media helped to… to show this revolution. So, this is why it was
confidential it was actually a surprise for the TED international audience and in Egypt
we thought it might be a good surprise here in Egypt for the Egyptians.
Salma: how you managed with your MAR(t)OM .. MARCOM team, the marketing
and communication team for this event… like you use social media basically to
inform your audience about the event. So how did you manage this?
Bassem: I always believe that the beauty of TED comes with the social media because
the content and the message of TED comes with the social networks. They post the
videos and the talks on YouTube so that everyone can watch it. So what was our plan
in this year with the marcom team is that we’re trying to initiate campaigns and to do
more interaction … engage with our community so that we can transfer 100% all the
TED culture here in Egypt. So, for this event, when we were mainly working with the
marcom team to take this content of this re…of the event, which was named “the
wonders of Tahrir” and we’ve started to do campaigns online to let people know
about this event. These campaigns are mainly on our main social networks (facebook
and twitter) and we have started recently a blog for TEDxCairo talking about our
thoughts and our ideas and our campaigns. So mainly (aaaaaa) we the marcom team
we are working on these campaigns online to spread the TED message all over Egypt
and trying to partnership with as many organizations as we can so that we can reach
out different communities in Egypt.
Salma: So, I have a final 2 questions for you. What are your expectations for Egypt
this year?
Bassem: Actually I'm very optimistic. After revolution we can breathe freedom.
Aaand I always believe that the best is yet to come. And (aaa) with TEDxCairo and
with our aim that we're trying to spread knowledge around the world I think that
within the next two years Egypt is gonna be loaded with a lot of opportunities and I
think the change is happening now. Before the revolution with TED we were
thinking… we were hoping that change is coming. All of us believed that change is
change is happening now and I… I think that and I totally believe that within ten
years that Egypt is going to be among the one .. the ten economies.. economies.. right
economies (laugh) in the world (y3ni)
Salma: So how do you think TEDxCairo can collaborate with this?
Bassem: What we can do that... we have this pool of ideas and we have lots of ideas
and trying to collect as many ideas as we can. And these ideas are coming from
Egyptians. Pure Egyptians who have this innovative and creative mind. So, how can
TED helps on this that we're trying to create this platform of those ideas so that we
can help to apply all these ideas not all of them but percentage of them so that we…
and we believe that these ideas can change from Egypt in all the fields in social,
Salma Hegab
Bassem El Hady Interview
culture, business, technology, and even our… I think that we had a … we have a big
role in... To join... in joining and make a change.
Salma: Okay and when is your next event by the way?
Bassem: Actually TEDxCairo it's an annual event which happens every year so our
last event was in May so it is expected also to be in May, the first week of May
actually it's seventh of May.
Salma: Thank you Bassem El Hady.
Bassem: You're welcome.
Salma: Bassem is a friend of mine. Met him after the big success of the first
TEDxCairo event that had various famous figures as speakers including Wael
Fakharany ( the regional manager of Google in Egypt & North Africa), Omar Samra (
the first Egyptian & youngest Arab to climb Mount Everest), Khaled Aboul Nage
(Egyptian Actor), Ahmed Darwish (Former Minister of State for Adminster
Development) and other famous figures.
Their Mini Event that took place on March 1st included the speakers: Wael Ghonim
(Head of Marketing of Google in the Middle East and North Africa and a known
figure for his role in revolution of Egypt January 25th , Amr Salama (Egyptian
Director) and Tarek Naga (known Architect). Also they had the Egyptian band "West
El Balad" that sang "Voice of Freedom – ‫"صوت الحرية‬